Field Level Media
Sep 29, 2018
Given one last chance Saturday night, the TCU offense cashed in.
In a rare Big 12 Conference defensive struggle vs. Iowa State, Horned Frogs' junior kicker Jonathan Song booted a 28-yard field goal with 37 seconds to play, and TCU's defense refused to budge on the Cyclones' last-gasp possession as the host Frogs won 17-14 at Amon Carter Stadium.
TCU (3-2, 1-1 Big 12) got the ball with 3:49 left in the game after forcing a Cyclones' punt from inside the 10-yard line. Iowa State had snuffed out the Frogs' previous threat when Braxton Lewis intercepted a deep Shawn Robinson pass thrown into triple coverage.
After the punt to the Iowa State 46-yard line, Robinson made amends for the pick. He kick-started the drive with a 7-yard run and moments later zipped a 19-yard pass to Jalen Reagor to convert on 3rd-and-6 from the 30.
With the ball at the 11 and well within Song's range, the Frogs ran three times mixed in with a pair of Cyclone timeouts.
Iowa State (1-3, 0-2) had forged a 14-14 tie with 7:51 left in the game when David Montgomery vaulted over the goal line for a 1-yard touchdown that finished off the Cyclones' best drive of the night, 11 plays covering 78 yards.
Through three quarters, Iowa State managed only 107 yards and was unable to generate any consistency on the ground. That changed on the game-tying series, largely because of Montgomery and a gritty scramble by quarterback Zeb Noland.
Montgomery carried eight times for 51 yards, and Noland kept the march alive when, on 3rd-and-25, he dodged a near sack to get loose and then juked two more would-be tacklers near the sideline for five more yards to finish a 28-yard run for first down.
The Horned Frogs snapped a 7-7 halftime tie just 49 seconds into the third quarter with a defensive TD.
As Noland drifted back to pass on second down, safety Innis Gaines drilled him for a sack and the ball popped loose. Defensive end Ben Banogu scooped it up and rumbled 47 yards for the score.
Each quarterback threw a touchdown pass in the second quarter.
Noland floated a 3-yarder to tight end Charlie Kolar to end a scoreless deadlock, and Robinson capped a 10-play, 83-yard drive with a 10-yard slip screen to Taye Barber.
The Frogs finished with 299 total yards, while Iowa State had 198 -- only 79 through the air.
--Field Level Media